Automated installation of network service in a telecommunications network

ABSTRACT

A communication line is installed in a network by automating a design phase and a configuration phase for the service and by automating failure recovery in either of the phases. In the design phase, an optimal route for the communication line is found, and the network components are provisioned and assigned. If the assigned network components are not available or can not be validated, the components causing the failure are marked, and the design phase is retried without the marked components. After the design phase, the configuration phase begins. The circuit design is tested against actual network components. If the test is passed, the actual network is configured according to the circuit design and the circuit is activated. If there is a network component failure during the configuration phase, the good route elements in the design are released while the failed network components are marked. The design phase is retried.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention is a continuation of and claims the benefit of andpriority from the prior-filed U.S. Nonprovisional patent applicationSer. No. 10/057,041, filed 25 Jan. 2002 entitled “Automated Installationof Network Service in a Telecommunications Network,” the subject matterof which hereby being specifically incorporated herein by reference forall that it discloses and teaches.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to the automated installation of network servicein a telecommunication network. More particularly the invention relatesto automated performance of the sequential tasks necessary to delivernetwork service to a customer over a communication network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Modern communication networks have very large capacity, can provide realtime delivery of information over diverse routes, but are highly complexin their design. Because of the complexity in the design and the manytrade offs and choices for installation of a communication line throughsuch a network, the installation of a communication line between two endpoints for a customer can take four to five months. The installationinvolves thousands of inter-related tasks and requires many choices tobe made. Once the customer's request for service has been received, anoptimal route must be found. All the network elements along the routemust be available. Available elements must be connectable to make up thecircuit design to deliver the private line. Right now there are mostlikely months between the time the customer places an order for networkservice and the time of actual delivery of that service. This delayresults in customer dissatisfaction with the network provider, and alsocosts the network provider lost revenue during the interval of time acommunication line is being installed.

To date, the tasks performed to install a private line have beenperformed manually with some few exceptions for portions of the tasks.For example, computing systems have been brought to bear on the problemof finding the optimal route. However, computing systems yield resultsonly as good as the data they work with, and the actual field inventoryoften differs from the stored field inventory in the computing system.What is available in the computer records may not in fact be availablein the field. Further, computing systems without adequate data about thenetwork may be programmed to make assumptions in creating a route forinstallation of a private line. These assumptions may not be valid whenit is time to connect network elements together to complete thecommunication circuit design. Finally, what appears to be a valid designon the engineer's drafting board may contain network elements in thefield that are not consistent with the computer information or theengineer's information and therefore are not connectable.

Further, performance of these installation tasks often results in designtrade-off choices that may affect the service to the customer and thusrequire repeated consultation with the customer as the communicationline is built. The installation of a private line is like building alarge structure and the design and configuration phases of the projectcan take months to perform.

It is with respect to these considerations and others that the presentinvention has been made.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, the above and other problemsare solved by automating a design phase and a configuration phase forthe installation of the communication line and further by automating therecovery from a failure in any of the phases. In the design phase, anoptimal route to satisfy the required capacity is found and the networkelements are provisioned and assigned. If the assigned network elementsare not available or can not be validated so that the design fails, thesegments or ports causing the failure are marked, and the operation flowreverts back to retry the design phase without the marked segments orports. After the design phase is successfully completed, theconfiguration phase begins. In the first part of configuration phase,the circuit design from end point to end point is tested against theactual network controlled by the network provider. If the test ispassed, the actual network is configured according to the circuit designand the circuit is activated. If there is a network component failureduring the configuration phase, the good route elements in the designare released while the failed network elements are marked. The design ispurged from the system and the operational flow returns to retry thedesign phase. This automated operational flow repeats until a circuitdesign is found that may be validated and configured.

In another aspect of the invention, the operation of finding an optimalroute within the design phase may contain a retry loop. The routingoperation may find an optimal route without checking all networkelements of the route. When the routing operation then checks a networkelement and the element does not have required functions, such as anappropriate port, the routing operation will mark the network elementunavailable and retry finding an optimal route without the markednetwork element.

In another aspect of the invention, the failed segments, ports andnetwork elements are recovered offline in a reconciliation process andreturned to the asset inventory for the network.

The great advantage of this invention is that a communication linewithin the network may be designed and configured in a matter of minutesrather than months. Subsequently, if the customer's equipment is locatedat or near node locations of the network, the customer's communicationline may be connected to the customer's equipment and providing serviceas soon as manual connection to the network occurs—usually a matter ofhours or days rather than months.

These and various other features as well as advantages, whichcharacterize the present invention, will be apparent from a reading ofthe following detailed description and a review of the associateddrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a system for automatically installingcommunication lines in response to network service requests.

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of the operations performed ininstalling a communication line with the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates another preferred embodiment of the operationsperformed in installing a private line in response to a customer requestwith the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows another preferred embodiment of the operations performed ininstalling a communications line with the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 illustrates the systems included in the service management system110 of FIG. 1 and in addition a network monitored and configured by theservice management system.

FIG. 6 shows the operational flow of one preferred embodiment ofoperations performed by the service management system of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 shows the operational flow of one preferred embodiment ofoperations performed by the reconciliation system 112 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 shows the operational flow of one preferred embodiment ofoperations performed by the auto synchronize operation 326 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 shows the operational flow of one preferred embodiment ofoperations performed by the automatic conflict fix operations 353, 363and 373 of FIG. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows the architecture of the automated installation system fordelivering a private line to a customer with minimal delay. The systemhas an order entry and work flow management system 102, a commandcontrol engine 104, a routing engine 106, a provisioning system 108, anda service management system 110. Command control engine 104 integratesthe operations performed by all of the other engines and systems tocontrol the installation system operations.

The reconciliation system 112 adds flexible adjustment of theinstallation system to recover and work around problems arising duringthe automated delivery of the private line. The operations researchsystem 118 provides performance and cost information to the order entrysystem 102 and network rules to the routing engine 106.

Order entry system 102 works with the customer through a remote computer116 to take an order from the customer. Based on such information ascapacity and availability as determined by the routing engine, the orderentry system will conduct a dialog with the customer through the userinterface at the remote computer 116. This real time dialog collectsfrom the customer necessary information to design the line and providesreal time feedback to the customer on availability and implementationinstallation dates.

The routing engine 106 receives commands from the control engine 104 todetermine possible paths for the private line to be provided to thecustomer. The operations research system 118 provides network rules tothe routing engine so that the routing engine may formulate a route forthe private line. The operations research system 118 also provides costand pricing information to the order entry system reflective of therules being provided to the routing engine 106. Routing engine 106 undercontrol of the command control engine returns information to the orderentry system regarding the capacity of the system. The order entrysystem 102 can then reply to the customer in a real time basis whetherthe customer order can be accommodated.

One example of a routing engine is described in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/057,362 entitled “ROUTING ENGINE FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONSNETWORK,” filed 25 Jan. 2002 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,146,000). Thespecification and drawings of this application are incorporated hereinas an exemplary routing engine for use in this installation system.

After the routing engine 106 has determined a proposed route then thecommand control engine engages the provisioning system 108 to provisionand assign elements to the route. Provisioning system 108 also validatesthe design. If the route is validated then the route is provided to theservice management system along with configuration information.

Service management system 110 then automatically configures the network120 to create the private line from end to end in accordance with thecustomer order. Service management system 110 works with various networkelement-driving units to drive network elements in the network toconnect and activate the private line. Once the private line isconnected and activated in the network, the command control enginecontrols the workflow management system 102 to generate worksite tasklists to complete the installation of a private line for the customer.In most instances all of the worksite tasks will be just those necessaryat the end points to connect into the customers systems, but they couldalso include worksite tasks along the route.

A significant aspect of the installation system is that it is designedto automatically work around problems in implementing the private line.In addition the installation system implements a network elementrecovery operation using the reconciliation system 112 to recovernetwork elements marked as bad or unavailable for some reason. When thecommand control engine detects a failure or error in installationoperations—routing, provisioning and assigning, configuration andactivation then the command control engine can call the reconciliationsystem 112. The reconciliation system 112 receives input and cooperateswith the service management system 112 and provisioning system 108 toreconcile problems in links or segments between nodes or section atnodes in the network. Such problems might include erroneous indicationsof availability of a segment or port, erroneous connection of a segmentto a port at a network element, and in general any port or segmentissues that might arise. The reconciliation system 112 along with theservice management system 110 generates reports 124 for designers andprovides workstation access to the live network for the designersthrough workstation 126.

The logical operations of the various embodiments of the presentinvention are implemented (1) as a sequence of computer implementedsteps or program modules running on a computing system and/or (2) asinterconnected machine logic circuits or circuit modules within thecomputing system. The implementation is a matter of choice dependent onthe performance requirements of the computing systems implementing theinvention. Accordingly, the logical operations making up the embodimentsof the present invention described herein are referred to variously asoperations, structural devices, steps, acts or modules. It will berecognized by one skilled in the art that these operations, structuraldevices, steps, acts and modules may be implemented in software, infirmware, in special purpose digital logic, and any combination thereofwithout deviating from the spirit and scope of the present invention asrecited within the claims attached hereto.

FIG. 2 illustrates the operational flow for a preferred embodiment ofthe invention in installing a communication line in response to anetwork service request. After a request is received, routing module 130will attempt to select a best route from a network asset inventorydatabase. The asset database is an inventory of network elements in thenetwork provider's network system. The asset database represents onpaper what the network provider believes is available. Network elementsare constantly being added to and withdrawn from the asset inventorydatabase as designs for network service are added and purged, and asnetwork elements are added or consumed. As the route is being selected,a given network element in the selected route may not have the correctproperties and thus not truly be available. For example, the right typeof port, high speed or low speed, may not be available, or a channel inthe segment between network elements may not be available. In such anevent availability test operation 132 will detect that the route is notavailable and the operational flow will branch NO to mark operation 134.Mark operation 134 marks the network element or segment that was notavailable, and the operation flow returns to retry operation 136. Retryoperation 136 initiates the same service request again, the routingmodule 130 will find another route without using the network element andsegments marked unavailable by mark operation 134.

If availability test operation 132 passes the route selected by routingmodule 132, the operation flow branches to design module 138. Designmodule 138 will create a circuit design from end point to end point toimplement the network service. The resulting circuit design will gothrough a validity test at test operation 140. Validity test operation140 is comparing all the components—network elements, ports,cross-connects, and segments—in the design against the asset inventorydatabase. If the comparison finds a mismatch between the design and theinformation in the asset inventory, the operation flow branches NO toconsume operation 142. Consume operation 142 marks the bad networkcomponents in the design as consumed and thus unavailable. Operationflow then returns to retry operation 136 which initiates another requestfor a route for the network service. Routing module 130 will start againto find a route and will not use network components marked consumed andunavailable.

If the circuit design passes the validity test, the operation flowbranches YES to the configure module 144. Configure module configuresand activates the network elements, ports, cross-connects and segmentsin the circuit design. Since the activation module is working with theactual network rather than the network as indicated in the assetinventory records, it is possible that the asset inventory is notup-to-date and configuration will fail. Also a network element, port,cross-connect or segment could fail when activated. Error test operation146 tests the configuration and activation. If an error is detected, theoperation flow branches YES to purge operation 148. Purge operation 148releases good components back into the asset inventory. Bad componentsmarked as consumed by the design are not released; otherwise, thecircuit design is purged and the operation flow returns to retryoperation 136. Retry operation will initiate the service request atrouting module 130 and the installation operational flow begins againwith the routing module looking for another route.

If no error is detected, the installation of the communication line tosatisfy the service request is complete, and the operation flow returnsto the main flow for other operations. What is significant about theoperational flow is that it automates the installation of the networkservice and does not go offline when there is an error in routing,design or configuration. Instead the problem component is marked and theinstallation flow begins again without using the bad network component.

FIG. 3 shows another preferred embodiment of the operational flow forthe installation of a private line. The automated process begins whenthe service request is received at the receive operation 150. Theservice request will include a source end point, a destination end pointand properties associated with the type of service desired. This servicerequest is passed to find optimal route module 152. The find module 152,which is in the routing engine 106 (FIG. 1), will apply the servicerequest to possible routes generated from a network inventory data base.An optimal route satisfying the service request will be selected basedon the Dijkstra algorithm. Other routing algorithms such as Bell/Fordalgorithm, Johnson's algorithm and Floyd-Warshall algorithm could beused.

Route available test operation 154 detects whether the find optimalroute module was successful in finding a route to satisfy the request.If the route is not available, then the operation flow branches NO topost operation 156. Post operation 156 will return a “no route” messagein response to the service request. Notification operation 158 will flagthe service request for manual intervention and the automatedinstallation operation flow returns back to the main process flow in thecomputing system.

If the route is available, then the operation flow branches YES fromtest operation 154 to assign and validate operation 162. In the assignand validate operation 162 the command control engine 104 (FIG. 1) workswith the provisioning system 108 (FIG. 1) to perform the assign andvalidate operation 162. Based on the route identified by the findoptimal route module 152, the provisioning system assigns and validatesnetwork elements and connection segments in the route. Assigning asegment or network element is accomplished by marking the segment orport of a network element as consumed. If all of the segments and portsof network elements required for the route can be assigned and validatedi.e. verified against an asset inventory of network elements in theprovisioning system, success detect operation 164 will indicate theroute components are assigned and validated. The operation flow willbranch YES to complete circuit design module 166. If the assignment andvalidation operation 162 fails, then the success detect operation 164will branch the operation flow NO to consume bad segments and bad portsoperation 168. Operation 168 by consuming the bad segments and bad portseffectively marks these components—segments and ports—in the routingengine as unusable. After the segments and ports are so marked, theoperation flow returns to retry operation 170. Retry operation 170 againapplies the service request to the find optimal route module 152. Module152 will again operate to find a route but this time the bad segmentsand bad ports marked consumed by consume operation 168 are not availablefor use in finding route. Accordingly, if find optimal route module 152can find another optimal route, the new route will be passed by testoperation 154 to assign and validate operation 162. This operations loopwill continue until a route whose segments and ports of the networkelements can be assigned and validated is found and successfully testedby the detect operation 164.

For routes that have been successfully assigned, the complete circuitmodule 166 completes and validates the design against the qualitystandards and generates locical ports which will be used inconfiguration and activation. The quality standards for the circuitdesign are based on rules that assure the design is feasible, has goodperformance and is cost effective. All network elements will beidentified, all ports identified, all segments identified and allproperties associated with each component or device in the circuit willbe identified. Once the circuit a design is completed, design successtest operation 172 tests whether the circuit design was completed andvalidated. Since the completed circuit module 166 has effectivelyapproved all of the components of the circuit, any circuit designpreceding down the path through complete circuit module 166 will bepassed by the circuit design success test to retrieve circuit designoperation 174. Design success test 172 as will be discussed shortly isprovided for the situation where manual design intervention hasoccurred.

Manual re-entry input 176 indicates manual intervention, if necessary,has been completed. The retrieve circuit design operation 174 retrievesthe circuit design and passes that circuit design to the configure andactivate network operation 178. The “complete” test operation 180 isprovided because a circuit design where there is manual intervention maynot be complete. In this situation the operation flow would branch NOback to complete circuit design 166. If the complete circuit designoperation 166 can not complete the design, then the design success testoperation 172 would detect the failure and branch NO back to retryoperation 170. Retry operation 170 would then cause the find optimalroute operation 152 to find another optimal route for the servicerequest. Accordingly, the manual re-entry input operation 176, thecomplete test operation 180 and the design success test operation 172are provided only because of the desire to be able to accommodate manualintervention in a design. If the system were only going to deal withautomated designs, then the operation flow would be directly fromcomplete circuit design operation 166 to retrieve circuit designoperation 174 and to configure and activate network operation 178.

In the configure and activate network operation 178, the servicemanagement system 110 (FIG. 1) works under control of the commandcontrol engine 104 (FIG. 1) to communicate the configuration informationto all of the network elements making up the circuit design for the linebeing installed. The configure operation performed by module 178 errortests the circuit design against the live network inventory. If noerrors are found, it configures all of the network elements in thenetwork to create the segments and port connections making up theprivate line. Once the network elements are configured so that thecircuit exists for the private line, the circuit is activated andtested. Network element failure test operation 182 passes theoperational flow to create operation 184 if there is no network elementfailure. On the other hand, if there is an error in the design or anetwork element failure, the operation flow passes to release operation186. Release operation 186 releases all of the good segments anddisqualifies all the bad segments for the route in the routing engine.Disqualify operation 187 disqualifies in the provisioning system all thebad segments from the route. Finally, purge operation 188 purges theentire design from the provisioning system. After the purge designoperation 188, the operational flow returns to retry operation 170.Retry operation 170 signals the find optimal route module 152 to againbegin looking for a route to provide a private line for the servicerequest.

The create operation 184 when the network activation is successful isthe last operation performed by the installation system. In this createoperation 184 a work site task list is generated for all tasks that mustbe accomplished manually. Typically this will be just the final hookupor connection between the customer and the end point of the networkprovided by the network provider. However, there could be limitedinstances where for some reason the automated configuration andactivation of the network did not fail but flagged the need for a manualintervention at a work site along the route. This could occur where anode has not been completely automated for control from the servicemanagement system 110 (FIG. 1). After the network has been activated toprovide the line, and the task list has been generated, the operationflow exits from the installation routine and returns to the maincomputer system operation flow.

FIG. 4 illustrates another preferred embodiment of the invention wherethe installation operational flow is being performed in the installationsystem of FIG. 1. The operational flow begins with an order entryoperation 202 that performs a dialog with the customer to establish theorder or service request by the customer. Once the private lineproperties desired by the customer are specified in an order; a servicerequest is passed to a capacity check operation 204. Capacity checkoperation 204 works in the routing engine 106 (FIG. 1) to evaluatewhether the network has the capacity to meet the order. Test operation206 tests whether the capacity check was satisfied. If it is notsatisfied then the operation flow branches NO to eliminate operation208.

Eliminate operation 208 removes from consideration for a route for theprivate line those network elements and other network components thatare limiting the capacity. With these elements so marked, theoperational flow passes to retry operation 210. Retry operation 210initiates the capacity check operation 204 again so that the routingengine will again look to satisfy the capacity requested in the order bythe customer. In this retry the limiting network elements that were aproblem in the first try are not used. Once the routing engine hasdetermined that a route is possible and meets the capacity requirementsof the order, then test operation 206 will indicate the capacity testhas passed. Operation flow then branches YES to the provisioning anddesigning operation 212.

The command control engine works with the provisioning system 108(FIG. 1) to perform the provision and design operations. The provisionand design operation 212 allocates resources to be used from an assetinventory database and designs the private line for the customers order.It further assigns point-to-point segments and network elements in thenetwork based on routing information from routing engine 106 (FIG. 1).Once the route has been designed, availability test 214 is performed.

Availability test operation 214 reviews the network components assignedby the provision and design operation 212, and if all of the componentsare available, the operation flow branches YES to the design reviewoperation 216. On the other hand if the components are not allavailable, then the operation flow branches NO. The operation flowbranches NO to the availability resolution operation 218.

Availability resolution operation 218 seeks to provide alternativecomponents for those identified as not available in the availabilitytest. At the same time to expedite the process of meeting the order, theoperation flow returns to retry 210. Retry operation 210 initiates a newcapacity check 204 to begin the operational flow of satisfying the orderall over again. The component, that was not available, is marked asunavailable as this new flow begins.

As discussed above when the network component required by the design isavailable, the operation flow branches to the valid design reviewoperation 216. Valid design review 216 is comparing the design rules forthe proposed design for the private line and the network componentavailable in the network as indicated by a network asset inventory. Ifthere is a mismatch at a network component or a design rule is notsatisfied, the pass test operation 220 will fail. When the pass testoperation 220 fails, the operation flow branches NO to the designresolution operation 221. Design resolution operation will seek tounderstand the design inconsistency. The operation will mark the designelement as a problem and then pass the operation control back to retryoperation 210. Again retry operation 210 notes the component thatfailed, as marked by the design review, and then initiates theoperations again at the capacity check operation 204 so that theautomated installation system may proceed to try another design.

On the other hand if the valid design review operation 216 finds noproblems, and the pass test operation is successful, then the operationflow branches YES to configure network operation 222. In the configurenetwork operation 222, the command control engine passes control to theservice management system 110 (FIG. 1) so that the service managementsystem can build the private line. This is done by configuring networkelements, ports, cross-connects and segments in the network to providethe customer's private line from end point to end point. Connection testoperation 224 then detects whether the configuration operation wassuccessful; i.e. the connections for the private line have been made. Ifthe connections are not OK, then the operation flow branches NO toreconciliation operation 226.

The connection reconciliation operation 226 is performed by thereconciliation system 112 (FIG. 1). The service management system willgenerate reports and provide electronic error information and the actualnetwork inventory to the reconciliation system. The reconciliationsystem will attempt an automatic conflict fix. If this fails,troubleshooters may then use the workstation 126 (FIG. 1) to manuallywork with the reconciliation system to determine what error has causedthe connection failure. In the meantime the reconciliation operation 126marks the faulty component and passes operation flow back to retryoperation 210. Retry operation 210 notes the component marked by thereconciliation operation and initiates a new try for the private line.The retry begins again at the capacity check operation 204.

Once a private line has been built and passes the connection test 224,the operation flow branches YES to create the technician task list inoperation 228. The technician task list is created by the workflowmanagement system 114. After the task list is completed, the operationsfor the installation system are complete. As soon as the technician hascompleted the few manual tasks for hook-up, the customer will benotified that the private line is activated and operational.

In effect the command control engine in this automatic, integrateddelivery system keeps pushing the system for a real-time solution usingthe large amount of capacity and resources that are available throughthe network. This provides the advantage that a private line may berapidly established and confirmed to the customer automatically so thatall that remains is for a technician to service the end points of theprivate line to connect the customer.

FIG. 5 illustrates the architecture of the service management system 110of FIG. 1 and its control of the network elements to validate the actualnetwork, and configure and activate the network based on a completecircuit design created by the installation operational flow in FIG. 2, 3or 4. The service management system in the embodiment of FIG. 5 includesa fault/inventory management system 250 for validating the circuitdesign against the live or actual network, a live database 252 forstoring the live network information and a configuration system 254 forconfiguring and activating the circuit design in the live network.

The fault/inventory system 250 can communicate either directly withnetwork elements 257 and connection segments 259 or through elementmanagement systems 256. There will likely by a plurality of elementmanagement systems because of the plurality of types of networkelements. Likewise the configuration system 254 can communicate eitherdirectly with network elements 257 and connection segments 259 orthrough element management systems 258. Communication to the networkelements is provided through any number of communication links providedby the network provider and might be serial communication, internetprotocol communication, order wire communication, etc. A network elementincludes ports and cross-connects between ports that can be made or notwhen configuring the network element. Ports may be low speed or highspeed. Connection segments include two ports in to separate devicescommunicating via optical fiber or electrical cable. Whether thecommunication is direct or through an element management system dependsupon the network elements used. Network elements and element managementsystems may be obtained from manufacturers such as Nortel, Alcatel,Fujitsu, Ciena and Ericsson.

The fault/inventory management system 250 is monitoring the live networkand providing updated live network inventory data or records to the livedatabase 252. The fault management system also validates the circuitdesign against the live or actual network as will be describedhereinafter with reference to FIG. 6. The configuration system 254configures and activates the network elements 257 and segment 259 aswill be described hereinafter with reference to FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of operational modules performing theoperations of the service management system 110 of FIGS. 1 and 5. Theoperational flow begins with accept operation 270 receiving andaccepting the circuit design associated with the customer's request ororder for network service. Validate operation 272 validates the orderedcircuit design against an inventory of the live network. The live oractual network information for network components—network elements,ports, cross-connects, and segments—is collected by the fault/inventorysystem 250 (FIG. 5); it is stored as live network records in workingstorage in the fault/inventory system 250 and passed to the livedatabase 252. The validate operation 272 compares the circuit designagainst what actually exists in the live or actual network. If allnetwork components match design test operation 274 detects a good designand branches the operation flow YES to create subtasks operation 276. Ifone or more components in the circuit design do not match the liveinventory, the operation flow branches NO from design test operation 274to mark error operation 278. Mark operation 278 marks the error orerrors, and operation flow exist through return back to the installationoperational flow in FIG. 2, 3 or 4.

Create subtasks operation 276 creates the device specific subtasks listthat must be performed to configure and active a device in the circuitdesign. A list of subtasks is created for the entire circuit design, andoperation 280 passes the list of subtasks to queue operation 282.Because there may be multiple service requests in process the queueoperation 282 places the list of subtasks from pass operation 280 intoqueue with other subtasks from other service requests whose subtasks arein queue. This will allow some optimization of the configuration andactivation operations for the network.

When a subtask is at the top of the queue, find operation 284 finds theavailable network element or device that is to be configured by thesubtask. With this network element or device identified as to type andproperties, create atomic subtasks operation 286 creates a list ofatomic tasks or instructions to be performed on that device to configurethe device for activation. Execute operation 288 in the configurationsystem 254 executes the list of atomic tasks which are communicated tothe network element or other component and performed on the element orcomponent to configure it. Success test operation 290 tests whether theexecution of the list of atomic tasks and the resulting configuration ofan associated network element or component was successful.

If the configuration was not successful the operation flow branches NOto atomic rollback operation 292. Atomic rollback operation 292 rollsback through the atomic subtasks list undoing all of the tasks andundoing the configuration of the network elements or components that theatomic subtasks were operating on. Subtask rollback operation 294 rollsback through the subtasks from which the atomic subtasks were created.Lastly, mark operation 296 marks the network element or component wherethe failure occurred and then the operation flow returns to theinstallation operation flow in FIG. 2, 3 or 4.

If the configuration of the network element or device is successful, theoperation flow branches from success/fail test operation 290 to queueempty detect operation 298. Queue empty detect operation 298 querieswhether the queue of subtasks is empty or whether there are moresubtasks to be performed. If the queue is not empty, the operation flowreturns to find operation 284 to find the network element or othernetwork component to be configured by the next subtask in the queue. Ifthe queue is empty, the configuration and activation of the circuitdesign for the order is complete, and the operation flow branches YES tomark operation 300. Mark operation 300 notifies the command controlengine 104, that the circuit design is configured for activation. Theoperation flow than returns to the installation operation flow in FIG.2, 3 or 4.

FIG. 7 illustrates the operational flow for one embodiment of thereconciliation system 112 in FIG. 1. The reconciliation operation flowbegins with query operation 320. Query operation 320 retrieves theactual or live network inventory from the live inventory database 252 inthe service management system 110 (FIG. 5). Receive operation 322receives the network elements, their ports and cross-connects, thesegments and all other component information for the live network fromthe live inventory database. Compare operation 324 takes this liveinventory information and compares it against the asset inventoryinformation in the asset database used by the provisioning system 108(FIG. 1). In effect compare operation 324 is comparing the actualnetwork from the live database to the asset network which only exists asdata records from the asset database.

The reconciliation of the asset inventory database to the live inventorydatabase begins with auto-synchronize operation 326. Theauto-synchronize operation is described in more detail hereinafter withreference to FIG. 8. In the auto-synchronize operation each conflictbetween a device in the asset inventory and a device in the liveinventory is fixed or flagged as a conflict for manual intervention.Further, auto-synchronize may try multiple conflict resolution plans byreassigning assets in the asset inventory. After all conflicts betweenthe two inventories have been processed, successful auto-sync test 328will detect whether the automatic synchronization was successful. If itwas, the reconciliation operations are complete, and the operation flowreturns to the main program. If the synchronization was not successful,the operation flow branches NO to post operation 330. Post operation 330posts a notice or flag that any remaining conflicts must be handled bymanual intervention and the operation flow returns to the main program.

FIG. 8 shows the operational flow for one embodiment of theauto-synchronize operation 326 of FIG. 7. The auto-sync flow has threephases, shown in three columns in FIG. 8,—port conflict fix 350, connectconflict fix 360 and trail conflict fix 370. Port refers to the ports innetwork elements. Connect refers to cross-connects between ports orconnects in segments. Trail refers to the entire path from end point toend point in a network service. The auto-sync works on port-conflictsfirst, then connect-conflicts and finally trail-conflicts. Each phaseproceeds in a like manner and the like operations in each phase will bedescribed together.

Compare operations 351, 361 and 371 compare ports, connects and trailsrespectively between the live network and the asset network. Conflicttest operations 352, 362 and 372 detect respectively whether there is aport, connect or trail conflict found by their associated compareoperations 351, 361 and 371. If there is no conflict, the operation flowproceeds to the next phase 360, 370 and lastly returns to operation flowin FIG. 7. If a conflict is detected in a phase, than that the automaticport-conflict fix 353, the automatic connect-conflict fix 363 or theautomatic trail-conflict fix 373 of that phase operates to try to fixthe conflict. The automated conflict fix operations are describedhereinafter with reference to FIG. 9.

From each automated conflict fix operation there are two exit paths. Inone path it is determined that a fix is not available so the operationflow proceeds to the next phase. In the other path, a fix is availableand attempted. This path exits respectively to conflict fixed testoperations 354, 364, and 374. Each conflict test operation detectswhether its associated conflict fix operation was successful inresolving the conflict. If it was successful, the operation flowbranches YES to the next phase or lastly returns to the operation flowin FIG. 7. If it was not successful, the operation flow branches NO tothe retry operation 355, 365 and 375. If there are more choices toresolve the conflict, the choice is executed, and the operation flowreturns to compare operation 351, 361 and 371. The conflict is againchecked and if there is a conflict, an auto fix is attempted. If theautomatic fix is not successful, and there are no more choices, theoperation flow branches NO from the retry operation 355, 365, or 375 tothe associated flag conflict operation—flag port conflict operation 356,flag connect conflict operation 366 or flag trail conflict operation376. After the conflict is flagged, the operation flow returns to FIG.7.

FIG. 9 shows one embodiment of the operations performed by the automaticconflict fix operations 352, 362 or 372 in FIG. 8. The automatic fixflow begins at find cause operation 390 which identifies the source andcause of the conflict. Fix test operation 392 analyzes the cause anddetects whether a fix is possible. If a fix is not possible, theoperation flow branches NO, returns to the operational flow in FIG. 7and proceeds to the next phase in FIG. 7. If a fix is possible, theoperation flow branches YES to determine fix operation 394. Determinefix operation 394 finds the fix action appropriate to the conflict causefound by operation 390. In one embodiment a table of fix actions existsfor the various possible conflict causes. Determine fix operation 394than looks-up in the table the appropriate fix action. In anotherembodiment the fix action might be a set of rules to be used in creatinga fix action for different types of conflict causes.

Auto-fix available test operation 396 detects whether determine fixoperation 394 has found a fix action. If it has not, the operation flowbranches NO and returns to a conflict fixed test operation in FIG. 8. Ifa fix action was found or created, the operation flow branches YES toexecute operation 398. Execute fix operation 398 runs the fix action inan effort to resolve the conflict. After the execute operation, theoperation flow again returns to a conflict fixed test operation in FIG.8.

The various embodiments described above are provided by way ofillustration only and should not be construed to limit the invention.Those skilled in the art will readily recognize various modificationsand changes that may be made to the present invention without followingthe example embodiments and applications illustrated and describedherein, and without departing from the true spirit and scope of thepresent invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

1. An automated method for delivering a private line in a communicationnetwork to a customer comprising the computer-implemented operations of:provisioning components in the network to provide a private line design;validating the private line design; retrying the provisioning and thevalidating if the private line design is not valid; configuring thenetwork to build a private line circuit in accordance with a privateline design that is valid; testing the private line circuit for failure;and if the testing operation detects a failure in the private linecircuit: performing a reconciliation process to attempt an automaticconflict fix associated with the failure in the private line circuit;and retrying the provisioning operation, the validating operation, andthe configuring operation to build a new private line circuit.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the reconciliation process further comprises:receiving actual network inventory; comparing the actual networkinventory to asset inventory information of an asset database used bythe provisioning operation; and performing auto-synchronization based onthe comparison to attempt the automatic conflict fix.
 3. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the auto-synchronization includes identifying one ormore conflicts between the actual inventory and the asset inventory andapplying multiple conflict resolution plans to the one or moreconflicts.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the auto-synchronizationincludes the following phases: a port conflict fix phase to test for andrepair conflicts of ports in network elements; a connect conflict fixphase to test for and repair conflicts of cross-connects between portsand connects in segments between network elements; and a trail conflictfix phase to test for and repair conflicts of paths between end pointsin the network.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: testingthe capacity of the optimal route; and retrying the finding and capacitytesting operations if the optimal route does not have the capacity toprovide the private line.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:detecting availability of the components in the private line design; andretrying the provisioning operation if one or more components are notavailable.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising finding anoptimal route for the private line through the network, wherein theprovisioning operation provisions the private line design based on theoptimal route.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising deliveringthe private line circuit if the testing operation does not detect afailure.
 9. An automated system for delivering network service in acommunications network, the automated system comprising: a routingengine to find an optimal route for the network service; a provisioningsystem to create a circuit design of network components for the routeand assigning the network components based on network records; a servicemanagement system to configure and activate network components in thedesign based on actual network components in the network; and a commandcontrol engine to control the routing engine, the provisioning system,and the service management system to deliver the network service;wherein if bad network components are detected during provisioning orconfiguring: a reconciliation system to attempt an automatic conflictfix associated with the bad network components in the private linecircuit; and the command control engine to further control the routingengine, the provisioning system, and the service management system toretry delivering the network service with another route and circuitdesign.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the reconciliation system isfurther configured to: receive actual network inventory; compare theactual network inventory to asset inventory information of an assetdatabase used by the provisioning operation; and performauto-synchronization based on the comparison to attempt the automaticconflict fix.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein theauto-synchronization includes identifying one or more conflicts betweenthe actual inventory and the asset inventory and applying multipleconflict resolution plans to the one or more conflicts.
 12. The systemof claim 11, wherein the auto-synchronization includes the followingphases: a port conflict fix phase to test for and repair conflicts ofports in network elements; a connect conflict fix phase to test for andrepair conflicts of cross-connects between ports and connects insegments between network elements; and a trail conflict fix phase totest for and repair conflicts of paths between end points in thenetwork.
 13. The system of claim 9, wherein the routing enginecomprises: a test module to detect a limiting element in the optimalroute that limits delivery of the network service; a mark module to markthe limiting element as not useable; and a retry module to initiate therouting engine to find a new route if the test module detects a limitingelement.
 14. The system of claim 9, wherein the command control enginefurther comprises: a validating module to validate the circuit designagainst the network records and indicating a bad network component thatcannot be validated; a mark module to mark the bad network component asunavailable; and a retry module to initiate the routing engine to find anew route without the network component marked unavailable if thevalidating module indicates a bad network component.
 15. The system ofclaim 9, wherein the service management system further comprises: afault/inventory system to compare the circuit design against a liveinventory of network components in the actual network and indicating anerror in the circuit design if a component in the circuit design doesnot match a component in the live inventory; and a purge module to purgethe circuit design if said fault/inventory system indicates an error.16. An article of manufacture, comprising a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium including data that, when accessed by acomputer, cause the computer to perform an installation method havingoperations comprising: finding an optimal route to satisfy a requiredcapacity of a network service request to install a communication line;provisioning and assigning network elements and connections to implementa circuit design according to the optimal route; validating the circuitdesign against an asset inventory of the network and indicating whetheror not the circuit design is valid; if the circuit design is not valid,marking bad network components in the circuit design and retrying theinstallation method without the bad network components; completing thecircuit design if the circuit design is valid; configuring an actualcircuit in the network to implement the circuit design and therebyinstall the communication line; testing whether there is a failure inthe actual circuit in the network and indicating whether the actualcircuit has failed; if the actual circuit has failed: performing areconciliation process to attempt an automatic conflict fix associatedwith the failure in the actual circuit; and releasing good segments foruse in subsequent circuit designs and retrying the installation method.17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the reconciliationprocess further comprises: receiving actual network inventory; comparingthe actual network inventory to asset inventory information of an assetdatabase used by the provisioning operation; and performingauto-synchronization based on the comparison to attempt the automaticconflict fix.
 18. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein theauto-synchronization includes identifying one or more conflicts betweenthe actual inventory and the asset inventory and applying multipleconflict resolution plans to the one or more conflicts.
 19. The articleof manufacture of claim 16, wherein the auto-synchronization includesthe following phases: a port conflict fix phase to test for and repairconflicts of ports in network elements; a connect conflict fix phase totest for and repair conflicts of cross-connects between ports andconnects in segments between network elements; and a trail conflict fixphase to test for and repair conflicts of paths between end points inthe network.
 20. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein thefinding the optimal route further includes utilizing a retry loop sothat when the routing operation checks a network element and the elementdoes not have required capacity, the routing operation will mark thenetwork element and retry finding an optimal route without the markednetwork component.